Radio aims to get in tune with community

Community radio - radio by locals, featuring locals, originating locally - disappeared from Stockton when its last bastion, KUOP-FM, scrapped it in 1998.

Michael Fitzgerald

Community radio - radio by locals, featuring locals, originating locally - disappeared from Stockton when its last bastion, KUOP-FM, scrapped it in 1998.

Now it is being reborn.

Stone Soup Radio is streaming live online from a studio within the Peace & Justice Network's midtown Stockton headquarters. Its backers aim to have a low-power station broadcasting on the FM dial this year.

"Right now the biggest thing is defining community radio," said Anthony "BeGee" Henry Sr., Stone Soup's station/program manager. "You tell people its community radio and they say, 'What's that?' "

That's because many listeners grew up hearing stations all owned by a couple media giants. Local deejays are little more than waiters serving up dishes cooked far away.

The corporate menu lacks grass-roots programming, and public-affairs content such as local news and views, interviews with community leaders or arts figures, or listener call-in forums.

"Having a truly community-based station will be an opportunity to really unite our community through the radio," said Christie Kelley, PJN's co-chair. "And to share the positive things going on in Stockton."

Backers envision an array of music genres, local musicians playing live, news and news talk, multiculti, multilingual shows. A wide variety.

But not wide open. PJN is, after all, liberal. Local Rush Limbaughs need not apply. "All we ask is that the programs fit within the mission statement," Kelley said.

But conservatives as interview subjects, or callers, will be welcome to air their views. "I like to hear dialogue," Henry said.

Stone Soup - named after a folk tale about a meal made from small contributions - is a marriage between the PJN and student volunteers from San Joaquin Delta College's Radio/Television Department.

In 2009, the Peace & Justice folks won a high-powered radio station permit, hoping to expand the message published in Connections, their alternative newspaper.

They never managed to get their act on the air.

Meanwhile, Uncle Sam offered low-powered radio permits.

Obtaining one, PJN built a windowed broadcast booth in the Peace Center off the Miracle Mile.

That's a great place for radio students and aspiring professionals to learn the trade, said Rod Villagomez, an adjunct professor in Delta's R/TV department.

"With the jobs being limited on the commercial side of the house, any opportunity for our students to get real-world experience in a less-stressful setting is very valuable," Villagomez said.

The students get an internship; the PJN gets fresh blood for an organization peopled by aging progressives who started their activism in the sixties.

"We love it. It's fantastic," Kelley said. "They are so committed. They believe in it. And it's a whole different avenue. They are excited about radio. At the same time, they have totally embraced our views and our mission statement."

A low-powered FM station powered by about 100 watts would probably cover Stockton and nothing more. Though with radio, you never know.

The station has not been assigned call letters. Whatever they will be, they will be followed not by "-FM but by "-LP," for the low-power designation.

You can hear it now online at stocktoncommunityradio.com.

PJN longtimer Richard Slezak does an hour of news talk. "This is a means to put my desires - teaching, organizing, putting out my ideas - in action," he said.

Delta radio student Donte Henry engineers. "It's fun, man," Henry said. "Just being able to switch one sound to the next. Making it your own."

You can volunteer, donate or get an application to pitch your own program from the PJN, 231 Bedford Road, at (209) 467-4455 or at Stonesoup@stocktoncommunityradio.com or by calling "BeGee" at (916) 752-2651.

Said Villagomez: "This station actually could give the little guy a chance to compete in this market. And bring a whole new feel to local radio, by giving the music and programming back to the people."

Contact columnist Michael Fitzgerald at (209) 546-8270 or michaelf@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/fitzgeraldblog and on Twitter @Stocktonopolis.

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